Teach a Friend to Brew Day 2008 was a huge success! The official head count came in at 24 attendees – and very few raindrops! We had a very diverse group – with a gentleman all the way from New Zealand. Best of all, three of the attendees have all but confirmed that they will start homebrewing, with one more as a strong probable. Since this is what TAFTBD is all about, I see this as a big victory.

Many thanks to the Two Steves (Stephen V. and Steve H.) for providing hours of teaching and brewing advice to those who listened intently, while I brewed my annual ten gallon batch of TAFTBD IPA. It was great to have additional homebrewing veterans on hand to yak it up while I tried to stay on task:)

One of the best moments of the day was when Steve H. whipped out three large swingtop bottles of TAFTBD IPA, the recipe we were brewing, for one of those cooking show moments where you pull the fully cooked recipe item out of the oven – in all its glory! It was a real eye-opener for everyone to actually taste the ale we were brewing – it brought it all home for everyone.

Everyone kicked in food and munchies for the day, and special thaks go out to John for organizing the day’s food and slaving away over the grill. It was a good thing we had such great food support as my best guess is that we went through 12-15 gallons of ale. At the end of the day, three kegs were blown (with one more containing only 2 or 3 more pints), the Old Man Bitter, the Evil Twin Red Ale and the Black Widow Stout. We need some momento for folks when the blow a keg at Sociables Alehouse. I’m thinking of a commemorative T-shirt or something. Of course, people would have to go a long ways to beat Stephen, who’s been dubbed, The BlowMaster, for his prowess in killing kegs. 🙂

A Photo Gallery has been posted of the day’s activities for your viewing pleasure.